It’s Not Only What You Say…. How Communication Style and Team Culture Affect Audit Issue Follow-Up and Auditor Performance Evaluations

Abstract

Auditors work in hierarchical teams in which effective upward communication is critical to audit quality. We provide evidence that audit seniors’ willingness to consider following up on information, as well as their evaluations of staff performance, are affected by how audit staff speak up (i.e., their communication style) and audit team culture. Namely, audit seniors consider follow-up procedures more and rate staff higher when staff assertively communicate issues, especially in more autonomous team cultures. Yet, audit staff prefer to use a more passive communication style and perceive a more assertive upward communication style as risky, suggesting a disconnect between audit seniors and their staff. Our results suggest the potential for audit quality improvements by better alignment of supervisor-subordinate communication-style preferences, especially in more autonomous team cultures.